


Bracelets

by angelfrog (gaywizard)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff and Angst, Friendship Bracelets, VERY lucretia centric, and not ans whoops, angus stars in exactly one sentence, i did cry while writing this and u can tell, lucretia is the best character ans i lover her so fucking much ans this is a reflection of that, oh man this is so self indulgent, pry this hc out of my cold dead hands, thank u taz wiki for ur transcripts u saved my ass, the blupjeans is small but wholesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:13:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24018046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaywizard/pseuds/angelfrog
Summary: "Madame Director?" Taako's hand caught the edge of the door, his companions already past him."Yes?""Where did you get the bracelets you're wearing?" He sounded genuinely curious.Lucretia's breath hitched slightly."A gift from… some friends. Was there anything else you needed?" She said, folding her hands on her lap and smiling at the wizard."No, just curious. Adios," He waved, and the great door shut behind him.--Or, in which during cycle 33 they all make each other friendship bracelets.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup
Comments: 9
Kudos: 58





	Bracelets

**Author's Note:**

> doing tags on my phone is a pain in the ass sorry!!!!  
> some warnings: canon character death, mentions of taako theoretically killing the director  
> this is so incredibly self indulgent and i will forever hold onto the hc of them all making each other bracelets bc it makes me Very happy thank u  
> also un-betad if u see any glaring mistakes lemme know n ill fix em it is 3 am and i wrote this all in one go

It was cycle 33, and the entire crew was bored out of their minds. It was a nice planet, lush and green and populated with elegant druids that spend their days making art in any form. Lucretia was enjoying it, honestly, bonding with the inhabitants and spending her days painting lovely portraits of her friends. 

It was true, however, that she was also slightly bored. Granted, she was improving at her art form and could certainly be considered a master of painting, but there was a lack of… she would call it _involvement_ , really, that made them all feel stagnant and ill at ease. There was nothing to focus on, or work towards, just gentle lute music floating through the trees and endless painting. 

So much painting. 

There were other planes that focused on art, but this one was certainly calm about it. No point to doing things like 'space exploration' if Jeremeth just found a lovely berry that makes just the perfect shade of blue, wouldn't that be lovely on some thread, good job Jeremeth. 

Taako was the one who went and traded one of Lucretia's (admittedly least favorite) landscape warm ups for some brightly colored silk embroidery floss. He amused himself making bracelets for himself, for a while, before Lup demanded he shared so _she_ could make some, too. And then Barry wanted to know how to make them, and Davenport got tired of seeing them all over the counters, and Lucretia provided paintings to trade(small landscapes, mostly, she tended to keep the ones she liked tucked in her rooms) before giving in, and then Magnus felt left out, and it was a whole thing.

Weekly bracelet night, where the crew would gather in the cozy dining room of the ship and the twins would teach them how to make a new pattern or improve an old one, became a routine. Through the week, a passerby could see any one of the crew tying the slippery thread in careful determination, to show off the next meeting.

Lucretia wasn't really one for textile arts, but she tried her best, and having something new to hack away at improved her mood- improved the entire crew's mood, really. They all celebrated when someone made a completely flawless bracelet, figured out a new style, even found a new color of thread. It was nice, having something they all did and bonded over together.

So when the end of the year was starting to roll around, the druids getting up in arms to be ready to defeat the hunger, Taako surprised them all with a bracelet, six perfect blue/silver/red bracelets that he tied around wrists with practiced ease. 

The next week, Lup had six as well, orange and red and flame colored. Magnus definitely cried when she revealed them, you know how he is- 

Lucretia thought that was a lovely idea, and spent the week making six blue and grey and purple bracelets, identical to each other in every way(she was very proud how far she'd come since the first tangled mess, all those months ago). 

When she shyly pulled them out the next week, Magnus cried again and pulled a handful of almost perfect brown and gold bracelets out of his pocket. 

They had two weeks before the hunger, and four bracelets each.

Merle was quiet and self-satisfied when he found them all individually throughout the week, tying bracelets with four shades of green around each crew member's wrist. 

Davenport, who wasn't super on board at the beginning, surprised them the day before they had to leave this plane with lovely white/black/emerald bracelets. Not just Magnus cried when their captain delicately tied them around each wrist. 

\--

Cycle 34, the bracelets stayed through the rift. Nobody dared take them off for fear of losing one to the depths of space, and so the bracelets stayed on for the rest of the century.

\-- 

Taako from TV refused to take the care-worn bracelets off, no matter how much Sazed protested they were unsanitary; he didn't know why the six bands of colored thread were so important to him, but fuck knew he wasn't going to part with them, no way, no how. Taako's good, thanks. 

\--

Merle knew the bracelets were important to him, spiritually, so he just figured they were some sort of holy something. And, you know how belief does things to mundane objects.

\-- 

Magnus almost caught one of his bracelets in a chisel, once, and Julia was very puzzled as to why she was comforting a practically hysterical Magnus after the incident. He was also puzzled, past the sheer horror he felt at the prospect of losing even one of the things. All he knew was that if he had managed to cut one off, it would be akin to the end of the world.

\--

Barry, when he grew his new flesh suit, made sure to tell him to keep those bracelets _as safe as possible_. He refused to lose them, and he was one stubborn jeans-wearing bitch. 

\--

Davenport knew they were important. He just did, in the way that he knew Lucretia was a dear friend, and that red was a color he looked good in. 

\-- 

And Lucretia, of course, knew _why_ they were important. The six bands of her friends, her family, hiding under the deep blue velvet of her cloak, always. 

Almost always, anyway. 

She was debriefing the Tres Horny Boys, after the events of The Crystal Kingdom escapade, and she was bone-tired. Her normal outfit had been discarded in favor of just her dress, arms and shoulders bare. And wrists, apparently.

"Thank you, gentlemen, and please, get some sleep," She stood up, waving her hand at them wearily- she didn't notice Taako's surprised glance at her wrist, the furrow in his brow at what he saw. She didn't notice him glancing down at the, considerably more worn, bracelets around his own. 

She had sunk back down into her chair, when he spoke.

"Madame Director?" Taako's hand caught the edge of the door, his companions already past him. 

"Yes?" 

"Where did you get the bracelets you're wearing?" He sounded genuinely curious. 

Lucretia's breath hitched slightly. 

"A gift from… some friends. Was there anything else you needed?" She said, folding her hands on her lap and smiling at the wizard. 

"No, just curious. Adios," He waved, and the great door shut behind him.

It was late at night, and she had been on the edge of her seat for _hours_ now, waiting to see if her friends were alive, so she figured that was a good enough excuse when tears started rolling down her cheeks. Angus was already gone, hopefully asleep. So she sat at her desk, and Lucretia wept. 

\--

"Ten." Taako's voice was hard. His- _Lup's_ \- umbra staff was pointed at her, fury making it tremble in his grasp. She couldn't hear Magnus and Merle trying to calm him down, just the rushing in her ears and his voice, cold and clear and cut from ice. 

She looked down at her wrist, adorned with colors and patterns and memories of them in happier times, and she closed her hand into a fist. 

"Nine." 

"Taako, I know you're upset-" 

And, suddenly, that ridiculous over-powered sword(where the hell did Garfield even get that thing, anyway?) is also pointed at her.

"Eight." His voice was shaking, and hot tears were rolling down Lucretia's face. 

"Listen-"

" _Seven_." She knows it's not just rage that's making his hand tremble like that, but she can't bring herself to care. 

"Please listen to me, _please_ ,"

" _Six_."

She hopes that, when he kills her(and it will be justified, she knows this, she took everything from all of them, but none more than Taako, her friend, her _brother_ ) it will be after she saves this plane; she doesn't care if she survives, but she couldn't bear to let these people she loves so much die because of her choices. If they didn't survive, she wouldn't be able to live with herself. Never again.

"You fucking took everything from me!" He's shouting, now, and Lucretia's trembling. 

"I know that things went wrong, I know I shouldn't have kept you in the dark as long as I did. I swear," She's rambling now, begging for them to understand. "I had no idea how arduous of a task this was gonna be, I know I have a lot to atone for. But please, just-" She's trying not to gasp around her tears, "I'm begging you let me finish this and we can talk about it." 

It's more than she could have ever hoped for when Taako shakily lowers the umbra staff.

She's not really aware of what's happening, what she's saying, but she knows that Taako, her friend, her best friend and companion and the person she trusted most with the world, he's given up. There's a set to his shoulders that makes her anxious, and she knows it's her fault. 

So she does the only thing she can do, which is focus all her energy into saving them. White hot power, addictive and burning, flows across her hands and into her lovely staff, her pride and joy. 

Shit starts to go down, and she can't really pay attention aside from a growing horror as flames and darkness start to cover her office. She winces when Angus, little Angus, who she should never have allowed anywhere _near_ this shit, goes flying back against the wall, and redoubles her efforts. 

She flings out a hand, almost unconsciously, when Davenport's almost hit by the Hunger, and she glances up just to make sure he- her captain, who she looked up to for years and then broke like a fine toy- is okay. And he was. 

Lucretia intended to keep him that way, too. 

She's channeling all of the energy of the Light of Creation into her staff, the white glow starting to make her fingers ache as she concentrates, and then suddenly- 

There's a piercing _snap_ , of wood being broken, and then a resounding _ROAR_ of flame, and fireworks, and _memories_ , and there's- there's Lup. 

There's _Lup_. 

The hunger is gone from the room, blown to ash, and she's spinning, arms outstretched, red robes fluttering about her skeletal form, phantasmal and _resplendent_. Her palms are wrapped in flame, warm and soothing, and her wrist- around her wrist are six bracelets, gold and green and blue and white, her family with her forever. 

And Lucretia cannot help but gasp, and she looks up from her work, and she weeps, silently and openly, and laughs brokenly when Lup speaks. 

"You're dating _the Grim Reaper?_!" It's muffled, through the shield, but Lucretia chokes out a laugh because it's- it's exactly right. 

Barry talks to her first, stuttering and broken, which is only fair, and Lucretia takes care to wipe away the tears streaming down her face, and then, for the first time in over a decade, she speaks to her sister. 

"Lup, I… I looked for so long, I'm so sorry," And maybe Lup can tell how broken Lucretia feels, because her voice feels like a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

"I was inside an umbrella, can't fault you for not looking there," Her voice is light, but there's a worry behind it, and Lucretia knows what she's going to say next. "Lucretia, I need you to please stop conjuring up that barrier, alright? ‘Cause it’s gonna be the end of the world if you put that thing up." 

Lucretia sighs.

"Lup I’m... I’m so happy you’re back but, I can’t- there’s nothing you can say that’s gonna make me stop this. I’m gonna save us all, I- I promise." She tries to put as much apology into the words as she possibly can, before she closes her eyes, focuses, and teleports. Lucretia knows she was lying, if she had stayed any longer, if they could talk to her more, she would break and then they would _all_ die, no matter what she did. 

She knows, in her heart, the second Johann dies. She feels No-3113 crash the judge out of the air, she feels the massive surge in power(her own and in the world) when Taako, the greatest wizard in the planar system, opens a fuckass big portal to the plane of imagination. She can feel each death pressing against the back of her teeth, can feel the victories in the curl of her hand, and she forces herself to concentrate harder, _harder_ , she can't _possibly_ let this beautiful world die.

And then, her friends are there. And she's terrified that they're going to hate her, but Taako- Taako changes the game. And she has hope. 

And, for the first time in twelve incredibly lonely years, Lucretia has her family back. 

\--

It was a hair-raising experience, saving the world. But she does it- they all do it. There's a bitter lump in her throat when they finally skid the Starblaster to a landing, and she staggers out to see sunlight, and she leans against the smooth hull of her ship and she lets herself cry.

She cannot bear to be apart from the crew of the Starblaster any longer, there's a physical longing to crash into them and beg forgiveness, but she knows- Lucretia knows she won't be forgiven. 

Not yet, anyway. She hopes, desperately, that there will be a day when she _is_ forgiven, but it's a long time off. 

\--

It's a year later. 

There's a glorious wedding. 

Lucretia cries, smiling, and Lup holds her hand, Magnus sniffles into her shoulder, and she is content. Maybe not completely forgiven, or happy, but there is time yet, and she is content.

On the table of wedding presents, in a box carved by Magnus in the shape of a duck in flight, enchanted by Taako to make all the calls of all the ducks in the world, are two rainbow bracelets. 

And Lucretia thinks that maybe, being content is good enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr @honeybee-frog !!


End file.
